ALAN WILKIE RETURNING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 711, 10 July 1929, Page 16

ALAN WILKIE RETURNING

A NEW REPERTOIRE The announcement that Mr. Allan Wilkie is bringing his company to His Majesty’s Theatre for a brief season, commencing on Saturday, July 20. will prove welcome reading to those hosts of admirers who he, with Miss Hun-ter-Watts and the splendid combination of artists in support of him, enlisted during their last visit to Auckland. Mr. Wilkie, on the occasion of this forthcoming visit, is presenting an entirely new and non-Shakespearean repertoire, consisting of the three most brilliant and enduring costume comedies in the English language— Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” (or “The Mistakes of a Night,” to give it its original title), and R. Brinsley Sheridan’s two great masterpieces, “The Rivals” and “The School for Scandal.” “She Stoops” will be the initial production of the season, and plans for the first four nights and the matinee (on Wednesday, July 24) will open at Eady’s on Wednesday, July 17. The play is one of the half-dozen best farces in existence, and has held the stage continuously for 150 years, to which its first presentation dates back. On that occasion a somewhat mixed reception was feared for it, and the famous* Dr. Johnson, friend and admirer of the author, was present in a box to lead the applause. But the doctor had a sinecure, for the house was roaring with merriment. There are few “first nights” one would rather have attended. The plot is good, the dialogue quick and gay, the humour broad and genial, ahd the language racy and idiomatic to the last degree. Tony Lumpkin has become a stage type and remains the first of his class. The scene between Hardcastle and the servants is another rich stroke of “theatre,” which, despite imitations without number, will always hold its own. Mr. Allan Wilkie will play old Hardcastle and Miss Hunter-Watts will be seen as Kate. Young Marlow will be played by Alexander Marsh, Tony Lumpkin by Milton Sands, and Mrs. Hardcastle by Miss Lorna Forbes.